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McCain to run again – for Senate
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., talks during a news conference about getting back to his job in the Senate, at McCain's offices, Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2008, in Phoenix.
The Associated Press
John McCain said Tuesday he intends to seek another six years in the U.S. Senate. At his first Arizona news conference since losing the presidential bid, McCain essentially also swore off any future run for the nation's highest office, saying that if he is reelected in 2010, he will complete the term.
And McCain said he won't let the fact that he has to get the support of Arizona voters keep him from once again tackling the controversial issue of immigration reform.
The senator said that while any plan he pushes will have to secure the border, it also would include both a guest-worker program as well as a path to citizenship for many of the 12 million people already in this country illegally.
But McCain said that the most immediate issue remains the economy. On a more personal level, he also said that's why Barack Obama is going to be the next president - and he is not. McCain said that when he started his bid for the White House he presumed the war in Iraq would be the most pressing issue. That should have given him a boost over Obama, who has far less foreign-policy experience.
It didn't work out that way.
"The American people are deeply, deeply concerned about the economy," McCain said. "I think that that concern is, to a large degree, very legitimate. And I think that Americans decided, to state the obvious, that they wanted a new stewardship of our country, particularly as far as the economy is concerned."
The results of the election, he said, also hold lessons for other Republicans to as long as people remain focused on pocketbook issues.
"People want us to be fiscal conservatives," he said. McCain said the Republicans who controlled the White House for the last eight years - and Congress for six of those - "let spending get out of control."
But McCain said his call for fiscal discipline is not contrary to his belief that Congress has to spend money to rescue the economy, including a $700 billion infusion into financial institutions.
"The bailout has to be accompanied by fundamental reforms to stop the practices that got us into this position to start with, such as elimination of earmarks, such as a commitment, in my view, not to raise taxes at a time of great economic difficulties," he said.
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